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Yorkton beats Yorkton in Pee Wee finale

The Yorkton PeeWee Cardinals (team 2) took part in a four-team tournament hosted by Melville on June 18.
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Team members of Yorkton-2 following their playoff win in Melville on June 18. In front, lying down: Owen Shirtliffe; second row: Caleb Bymak, Luke Walters, Grady Hawkins, Kade Johnson, Gregor Farquharson; third row: Kaito Farquharson, Eric Fookes, Zachary Goulden-Maddin, Alec Zawatsky, Jamie Ellis; back row: Kevin Shirtliffe, coach, Mike Farquharson, coach.


The Yorkton PeeWee Cardinals (team 2) took part in a four-team tournament hosted by Melville on June 18.

They went into the tournament as the favourites based on a perfect season, says coach Kevin Shirtliffe, and in the last inning of the final game, they showed why they were favourites.

Yorkton had two teams entered into the tournament, Preeceville and the host Melville rounded out the competition.

Kevin Shirtliffe, head coach of Yorkton-2, said it came down to an all-local final where team 1 took on his team 2 in the final of the Parkland Minor Baseball League PeeWee playoffs.

He said his team went undefeated in the playoff round and went on to win the final game in a game Shirtliffe admitted actually made him sweat a bit.

Shirtliffe's team went into the playoffs, arguably the favoured group to win it all thanks to a regular season which saw them win each of the 10 games that they played.

In Melville last weekend however, they nearly saw their streak snap.

He credited pitcher Zach Goulden-Maddin, who pitched that final match vs. Yorkton-1.

Yorkton-1 was in the midst of a comeback attempt that fell short, Shirtliffe reported.

Goulden-Maddin held Yorkton-1 to a 11-10 setback as Yorkton-1 was a pitch away from tying the game, says Shirtliffe.

"Yorkton-1 was in scoring position," he recalled. "Zach Goulden-Maddin was pitching. He takes the pressure well," observed coach Shirtliffe.

Every game they've played up until that game resulted in a win, says Shirtliffe, who added that it started to get tense.

"We did feel some pressure," he told the paper. "We were kind of favoured, expected to win," he added.

His team got off to a rough start in the final game, he said. They trailed early in the first inning.

"That caught our guys by surprise (but) we chipped away.

Shirtliffe noted that in the final, the other team got three runs scored in their half of the final inning.
"It turned out to be a great day for baseball.